"Goose Bump City," he said.

For the first time since the community of 56,000 residents split into two high schools, both Lakeville teams enter the game undefeated and ranked in the upper half of the Star Tribune's metro top 10.

"As far as I'm concerned, being 5-0 means we're tied for first," said North coach Brian Vossen, who played for Lakeville in the 1990s when it was one school and coached by Larry Thompson, now at South. "It is unique, but we have to think of South as any other team in the conference."

It's the eighth cross-town meeting, but this one brings to mind the top-notch battles seen in Bloomington, where boys' hockey teams from Jefferson or Kennedy went to state every year from 1980-95.

"The whole community is talking about it," said Thompson, who coached at Lakeville High for 27 years before heading to South when it opened in 2005. "This is a football town with football people. It's pretty cool to have two schools ... be this good."

When Thompson looks across the field at North, where he's never lost since the schools split, he will see six former players coaching against him.

"I want them to win every game except when they play us," Thompson said. "But I don't have to do a lot of emotional talk for this one because if you can't get fired up for a North-South game, you shouldn't play."

Leading the way

The two quarterbacks were born one day apart and have amassed similar impressive statistics through five weeks of the season, but their differences go beyond growing up on opposite ends of town.

You can literally hear South's Mitch Leidner coming. The 6-4, 225-pound Gophers recruit gets around in a muffler-barking, suspension-lifted black Chevy Silverado with "1-MITCH" on the license plate. The truck matches his big numbers: 919 yards passing and 11 touchdowns.

North's Trey Heid, a speedy 6-2, 190-pounder, rolls in a quiet Nissan Altima. He has passed for 1,069 yards and nine touchdowns and is the Panthers' second-leading rusher.

But people around town still ask Heid's coach if Leidner is the Panthers' quarterback.

That might have been true had the schools not split. Two years before South opened, the 2003 Lakeville team went undefeated and won the Class 5A championship. A Lakeville team with the combined talent of this year's North and South players would be favorites this year, but who would play what position?

"If Minnesota voted right now, 75 percent would probably say Leidner would be at quarterback," Heid said. "You never know what would have happened. I don't try and build much hype off it, but I hear about it. A lot."

Leidner has, too.

"I love quarterback, don't get me wrong," he said. "But I could definitely see myself 40 pounds heavier and a tight end for sure. I know for a fact we'd be amazing. We'd be unstoppable."

Pride and tradition

Lakeville's youth football organization remains one entity, feeding players into both high school programs. Many of the players on both high school rosters grew up as teammates. The association has about 1,300 players, and you can bet a good number will be among the expected crowd of 10,000 for Friday's game.

"Looking at it from the community's perspective, I can't think of anything better," North linebacker Alex Wood said. "It's a huge deal. We want to win this one bad for sure."

Said South linebacker Nevin Andreas: "I don't want to get too jacked for it. But come game time, we'll be ready."

In the seven games in the Lakeville series so far, upstart South has had the upper hand. The Cougars won the first four meetings.

After the fourth, Vossen -- then an assistant -- got some sage advice from his wife: settle down.

"We finally just relaxed and had some fun with the game," he said. "Not so much 'Geez, we're losing?' We were more laid back about it."

In the next meeting, on South's home field, North won 12-6 in overtime in the Section 1 semifinals.

"I tell the guys you can't worry about being nervous or screwing up," Vossen said. "You have to enjoy the moment."

North won last year's regular-season game and South prevailed in the Section 1 playoffs. It's likely they will meet again this year.

North's field has been home to some of Thompson's greatest successes as a coach. He won three state championships at Lakeville and was runner-up twice. He's also taken South to state four times.

"We have to protect our quarterback," Thompson said of the key to winning there again. "If we do that, we're in great shape. And they better protect theirs."

Though South opened its doors 99 years after Lakeville's first high school, the school had big goals from the start. Tall vertical trophy cases were erected in the school's commons. For a while they housed T-shirts, pompoms and various athletic equipment. In only six years, they've filled with conference and state plaques.

And the "One Community, Two Cats" traveling football trophy.

Win or lose Friday, the latter won't go far.

"It really makes my heart feel good that the [North] program has been taken by the horns and has been so successful," Thompson said. "They've done it the Lakeville way."